diff -r 76d49dab6a00 -r 1c8e0d6ac3b0 mercurial/localrepo.py
--- a/mercurial/localrepo.py	Tue Mar 19 16:19:20 2013 -0700
+++ b/mercurial/localrepo.py	Sat Mar 23 13:34:50 2013 +0200
@@ -1416,9 +1416,8 @@
         # removed. We can either remove phasecache from the filecache,
         # causing it to reload next time it is accessed, or simply filter
         # the removed nodes now and write the updated cache.
-        if '_phasecache' in self._filecache:
-            self._phasecache.filterunknown(self)
-            self._phasecache.write()
+        self._phasecache.filterunknown(self)
+        self._phasecache.write()
 
         # update the 'served' branch cache to help read only server process
         # Thanks to branchcach collaboration this is done from the nearest